"What were they things? They looked like children, but were twisted and evil and awful. They gone now, at least, though Telryn looks a like worse for wear.""In a hour it will be dawn, and perhaps we will be able to see across the bay to the Acernoth Delta and freedom from this gods accused swamp! Just a few hours of rest, and Telryn can fly us all away."
"Damn. It's raining again...
"Oh oh...Telryn is frantically patting himself down, and rumaging through his pack. He looks up in anger, fear, and frustration: 'Chern's Breath! Those things stole my spell component bag...'"
We're on a sandbar, surrounded by tall reeds and a few small, twisted willows. About 50 yards to the east, it opens up to the ocean. It's getting light in the east, dawn is on the way. Darmaon asks if we can track the small creatures that stole Telyrn's spell pouch. Telryn says if he can rest for an hour and get a feather from a bird's wing, he can cast a Fly spell. Goldpetal says that's not a problem, as he has a hawk with him. Telryn says he doesn't need the whole hawk, just a feather. Goldpetal says he can't have the hawk.
The wind is picking up now, and Chuck thinks he hears something in the wind. "My pretties..." Chuck says it's too wet, he can't see any tracks. The sky is split by a lightning bolt and we hear a big crack of thunder. Now we all hear it..."My pretties, you killed my pretties!" The shriek echoes through the swamp, and a flock of birds shoots up into the air. Darmaon takes a shot at one, but misses. Chuck looks around for some natural shelter.
Darmaon asks where the hags draw their power from, and Telryn happens to have researched this. He tells us that hags worship Mormo and get their power from her. Many of them used to be human and sacrificed their humanity to gain power through Mormo. We go back to the camp to rest. The canvas keeps pulling loose in the wind, but Chuck keeps tying it back. We rest for an hour, and as he pulls the tarp back again, he sees a rat man. Actually, an army of rat men.
The leader shouts over the rain: "My rats and I have tracked you far, Traitor-spawn, but now the game is up. The Priest King, Yakkel True Death, Chern bless his name!, has commanded me to bring you to him. Surrender now, and you will not be harmed."
Some of the rat men have crossbows drawn, some have nets and clubs - they seem prepared to fight. "Put down your weapons now." We recognize this rat man - he's the disease rat man that Jim fought in the quicksand. He's got several amber medallions, as well as his jet medallion. Goldpetal asks what his priest king wants with us. "I'll let him tell you that." Miriel begins to cast a Sound Burst.
As she begins casting, another rat man appears to the south. It's a rat witch with a red cloak. Her hiss carries over the rain: "No, these spawn are mine! They have shamed me before my tribe and the world. By the laws of the swamp, they are mine, and I will make them my slaves!" She has a troup of red witch rat men with her.
Miriel continues to cast. Suddenly, a 9-foot woman, grossly fat, steps into the clearing. She has stringy dripping black hair, a big python wrapped around her neck, trinkets, fetishes. She points at us "You killed my pretties! You must pay."
Paks looks around and says "The priest king doesn't sound so bad now." Darmaon says to Telryn "I'm going to write a song about this one."
As Miriel starts to cast, all of the rat men shoot off their crossbows. Three disease rat men fire at Chuck. All miss, as their arrows are blown aside. None fire at Paks. Two fire at Darmaon, both hit. Five fire at Miriel. Four miss and one fumbles. One fires at Telryn and misses. Three fire at Goldpetal and miss. Now the red witches fire. Four fire at Chuck. All miss. One fires at Miriel and misses. Five fire at Goldpetal, one hits. Two fire at Telryn, one fumbles. Miriel finally fires off her sound burst and manages to stun two of the wolf rats.
Goldpetal casts an Entangle at the disease rat army. Sysy casts a spell and Telryn's face goes blank. The hag casts Entangle on our island, but we manage to avoid the entangling vines. The Twilight Warden pulls out his bow, steps out of the entangled area, and takes a shots at Chuck, hitting him. Chuck pulls out Hoarfrost, steps up to the Twilight Warden, and swings at him, hitting him hard. Darmaon grabs his potion of blur and his yellow gem, drinking the blur potion. The three wolf rats which are not entangled try to move, but two get entangled. The other charges at Chuck, but can't attack when he gets there. Paks tries to move, but gets entangled. She lays hands on herself to heal.
The disease rat men try to disentangle themselves, but don't succeed. The three who are not entangled stay unentangled, reload their crossbows, and shoot at Miriel, Goldpetal, and Telryn. More diease rat men show up, and one shoots at Darmaon, but misses. Another shoots at Paks and misses. Two shoot at Goldpetal, one hits him badly. Two shoot at Telryn, one hits. The red witches fire. Two shoot at Chuck, but miss. Three shoot at Darmaon, two hit. Three shoot at Paks; all miss. Three shoot at Goldpetal; two hit, one fumbles. Miriel moves out of the entangled area to the east, and crouches near a small tree for cover. Goldpetal casts an Entangle at the red witch group. Six of the red witches get entangled. Sysy casts a spell at Goldpetal. The swamp hag summons a wall of hornets, covering everyone except Miriel. Chuck and Goldpetal dodge them, but the others are stung. Telryn follows Miriel. The Twilight Warden draws both his scimitars and attacks Chuck, hitting twice. Chuck draws his other sword and steps out of the wall of hornets. Chuck swings both swords and hits twice. He swings Hoarfrost again, hitting once more. Darmaon steps out of the hornets and drinks a potion of cure light wounds as he moves out of the entangled area. The wolf rat moves past the twilight warden to attack Chuck. Chuck swings at it and hits. It is hurt badly and clearly wants to turn tail, but the warden gestures at it, and it tries to bite him, but misses. Paks tries to break free of the entanglement, but fails. She drinks a potion of healing. The hornets sting her. She yells at all of us to retreat.
Five more disease rat men show up. The other three get entangled. Two rat men shoot at Darmaon and both hit. One shoots at Paks, but misses. Two shoot at Goldpetal and hit. Two shoot at Telyrn; one hits. Two shoot at Miriel, but miss. One of the red witches gets entangled. One shoots at Chuck and misses. One hits the Twilight Warden. Miriel steps to the right to shoot a Searing Light at the Twilight Warden. Goldpetal moves out of the entangled area and yowls in terror. Sysy casts a spell at Miriel and Miriel hears a faint "stop" in her mind in Sysy's voice, but she just laughs it off. The swamp hag chants in dark Titan-speech, summoning a creature. A tree appears in front of Miriel, covered in writing vines. "You're not getting away from me, traitor-worshiper." Telryn follows Miriel. The Twilight Warden seems to step backwards and disappears, reappearing behind his troops. Chuck swings at the wolf rat with both swords, chopping its head off. He puts his swords away. Darmaon throws a sand orb at the Twilight Warden, but misses. He dives under the wall of hornets. Paks tries to break free of the entanglement, but fails. The hornets sting her again. She prays to Madriel for divine intervention.
Six more disease rat men show up behind the warden, but they seem to start attacking him. These ratmen have clubs, they surround the twilight warden and beat on him, hitting several times. The diseased warriors are confused. They turn and attack the new ratmen with various levels of success. The un-entangled diseased ratmen shoot at the red witches hitting some of them. Three of the entangled red wiches disapear. The unentagled ones shoot at the diseased archers, killing two. Miriel casts searing light at the swamp hag, hitting her, she loses concentration and loses her spell. Sysys casts a spell at Miriel and she sees a shambling mound appear before her. It reaches out and swats her. she shruggs off much of the damage and it disappears. The swamp hag disappears. Telryn starts crying. The twilight warden backs out of the scrum taking a hit on the way out. Chuck goes back into the entanglement and helps Paks to get out. Darmon retreats around the entangled spot where we were entangled. Paks does not manage to break free of the entanglement. She lays on hands to herself.
The clubless ratman tumbles through the group and swings at the twilight warden, missing. Two other ratmen throw spears at the twilight warden. One of them hits the clubless ratmen. The rest engage the other diseased ratmen. The diseased ratmen strike back at the club wielding ratmen. The free diseased ratmen shoot and kill one of the red witches. The red witch ratmen disapear. Miriel casts divine favor on herself. Goldpetal is still running north. Sysys disapears. Telryn is stilll crying. The twilight warden five foot steps backwards and dimension doors out of combat. Chuck trys to pull Paks out, with her trying also, they manage go get out of the hornet wall but is still entangled. She tries to heal chuck but the entanglement interferes.
The club bearing ratment attack the remaining diseased ratmen, killing one of them. The diseased ratmen fight back hitting a couple of times. The last three red witches also disapear, but we can see the vines still wrapped around them and can hear them. Miriel runs into the entangled area towards Paks but gets entangled at the edge. Goldpetal continues to run. Mirial sees the entanglement vines by the red witches go slack. The vines on a tree next to Miriel try to attack her but miss. Telryn retreats a bit away from the vines. Chuck doesn't have any luck trying to help Paks. Paks breaks out of her entanglement.
The fifth column attacks the diseased ratmen. The monk-like ratmen kills one of them. The diseased ratmen run. Miriel breaks free from the entanglement and moves away from the assassin vine as it swings at her. Goldpetal is still running. Telryn moves toward Miriel, still crying. Chuck is still entangled. Delmeron surfaces from under the water with his bow drawn and shoots at an entangled ratmen, missing. Paks fails to get free.
The fifth column moves right up to the edge of the entanglement right next to Paks and Chuck. Miriel heals Darmon. Goldpetal runs. Telryn is still crying. Chuck almost makes it out, but doesn't. Darmon draws his sword and holds his action. Paks fails to break free again.
The lead fifth element ratmen fails to help Chuck break free. The rest of them throw javalins at the entangled diseased ratmen. Some of the diseased ratmen in the entanglement break free and run away. The combat is over.
We find out that the ratman is actually Stone!! Miriel heals Paks and Darmans dex damage with a lesser restoration. Stone tells us that the other ratmen are lizard men. "Stone, you know draconic?!?!" as he gives orders to his lizards man crew. The party heads north. The lizardmen lead the party in a 10 minute forced march to a secret shelter. The lizard men's home is north west two days march. The party decides to go there.
We rested in the ruins that were our shelter for an hour then we move on. After a few hours of avoiding the ratmen patrols and such the lizard men start arguing about taking the party to the lizard men base because they don't want to ruin their neutrality with the hag. After some discussion they move off towards another secret ruin. The group decides to stay in the ruin while the lizard men see if they can bring a shamen to look at poor drooling, crying Telryn. Goldpetal casts two cure light on himself. Miriel heals up Telryn and Chuck. Everyone is pleased to know that it's Drinks With Orcs, Swims With Fishes, and Red Scales that helped rescue them.
Delmeron and Chuck build traps around the ruin and everyone rests and keeps watch. Miriel casts animal messenger and sends a small bird with a message to a priestess in Lave warning them of the ratmen armies and saying that we are trying to make our way out but are having problems with it. There are some spell memorization, studying, crying and language practicing while they wait.
Soon, One Fang appears with two other ratmen after a day and a half. He takes a look at Telryn and says something about the lights being on but nobody is home. He pulls stuff out of his bag, all sorts of weird materials that he mixes some stuff up. After a couple of hours he comes up with a concoction that he gives to Stone who forces it down Telryns throat. After a little while he's up and talking. Not long after he's back to crying after he notices that he doesn't know any spells. Miriel gives the shaman a symbol of Madriel and he gives her a dried lizard that is a totem of the nature spirit.
Chuck finally picks up on what everyone is talking about and offers the lizard men his metal mace, which they're very enthusiastic about. We discuss where to go next. It's fairly late evening, so we figure we'll leave in the morning and head back to Lave.
At first light, we set out for Lave. Stone offers to put things in his bag of holding for us. We thank the lizard men profusely, and they thank us for our previous aid. Darmaon disables his traps and takes the fire orbs back. It's a foggy, cold, rainy morning. We can't see more than about 10 feet around us. Stone asks Telryn if this is the work of the hag. Goldpetal says it seems like a natural fog, but it could possibly be her work. Stone keeps trotting ahead to scout, since he can move so much faster than the rest of us.
After a few hours, while Stone is scouting ahead, he is attacked by a big crocodile. The crocodile tries to bite him and whip him with its tongue. It hits with the tongue. The tongue wraps itself around him and he is entangled.
Telryn waits for someone to run past him. Paks runs towards the sound of Stone shouting. Telryn and Miriel after her. The crocodile pulls Stone closer, dragging him under water, then bites him. Stone punches the crocodile repeatedly, hitting all three times. Darmaon and Chuck run towards the fight as well. Chuck sprints past everyone else. Goldpetal runs forward, nearly reaching the fight, but all he sees is water churning.
An enormous snake hidden in the water and mud attacks Miriel as she splashes through. Luckily for her, it misses. A huge spider grows out of thin air next to Goldpetal and bites him, but he manages to throw off the effects of the poison. Paks steps up and swings at the spider. Miriel calls down a Flame Strike on the snake, boiling it to death and creating an area of steam all around her as the swamp water boils. Stone aims a hammer blow at the crocodile, hitting it twice and ripping the jaws off. He stands up in the water and hears sounds of more battle. Chuck shoots three times at the spider, hitting all three times, shotting out its eyes and killing it.
Stone wraps the crocodile jaws and sticks them into the bag of holding for dinner later. We continue on for the rest of the day. We find a large tree and Goldpetal makes us a tree house for the night. The night passes without incident. Goldpetal talks to his hawk and gives Telryn three wing feathers for his Fly spells. As we climb down from the tree, the ground becomes spiky around us, as does the tree.
Darmaon waits for the spellcasters to do something about the spikiness, which now looks as if we're in the middle of a brier patch. A wall of hornets appears around the tree. They sting all of us, and some look clumsier. Stone moves out of the wall of hornets. Goldpetal jumps out of the wall of hornets. The spikes scratch him as he moves, but he gets of the spiky area and heals himself. Paks waits on Miriel. Miriel steps out of the wall of hornets and casts a Dispell Magic on the spikes. Paks steps out of the wall of hornets and moves away from the tree looking for the hag. Telryn steps out of the wall of hornets and turns invisible. Darmaon steps out of the wall of and climbs up the tree to look for the hag. Chuck steps out of the wall of hornets and moves over to Stone.
Miriel moves over to Chuck and Stone, looking around for the hag. Paks casts Divine Favor on herself and looks for the hag. Telryn casts Fly on himself and flies up 60 feet looking for the hag. Darmaon readies an escape rope from a long branch of the tree. Chuck shouts "Does anybody see the hag?" He keeps searching. Telryn casts Detect Magic and searches for magical auras, but does not detect anything. He flies down and whispers in Paks' ear that he can't find her. We head out north again. Telryn keeps scouting and eventually determines that she's also invisible and flying and heading east.
Miriel heals Stone, who mentions that he's a little banged up. We keep marching. Just before noon we hear a crashing sound moving towards us from the north.
Darmaon steps to the side, draws his bow, and holds on something appearing from the north. Chuck also moves forward and waits with his bow drawn. Telryn casts Fly on himself again and goes up 60 feet. He sees two shambling mounds coming towards us and shouts out "Shambling mounds!" Goldpetal thinks they will appear within seconds, and casts an Entangle spell in front of us. Stone circles to the west around the Entangle, seeking the shambling mounds. Miriel waits for the shambling mounds to appear, or for someone to call for help. A pair of shambling mounds bursts through the reeds. Darmaon shoots a mound, hitting it. Miriel calls down a Flame Strike on the shambling mound to her right. It moves towards Chuck, just able to reach him but not to attack. Paks casts Divine Favor on herself and moves towards the mound, stopping 10 feet away.
Stone yells to Chuck to back up. Chuck backs up five feet, puts away his bow, and draws his sword. The shambling mound swings at him, but misses. Telryn magic missles the shambling mound attacking Chuck. Goldpetal attacks the other shambling mound, but as he gets close, it swings at him and hits him. Stone tumbles toward the one Goldpetal is attacking, and tries to hit it, but misses. Darmaon shoots again and hits. Miriel waits until someone needs help. The mound in front of Goldpetal attacks him with two long arms, hitting with one. He falls down. The other attacks Stone twice and hits once. Miriel runs up to Goldpetal, grabs him, and drags him back far enough to heal him in safety. Paks steps in and swings at the shambling mound twice, hitting both times and killing it. Reeds and vines around Miriel's feet try to wrap around her. They hit her and grapple her and try to constrict her. She gasps in pain and calls for help. Chuck runs towards Miriel. The vine attacking her sprouts another tendril and attacks him, hitting him and grappling him. He punches at the vine. Telryn magic missiles the vine. Goldpetal bleeds. Stone punches the shambling mound three times, hitting once. Darmaon gets entangled, but swings at the vine and hits. The mound attacks Stone twice, hitting both times, and trying to grab him, but he resists it. Miriel pulls out her dagger and slices at the vine, hitting it twice. Paks moves over and lays hands on Goldpetal, waking him up. He looks great.
The vine continues to strangle Miriel and Chuck. Chuck swings his short sword twice, hitting the vine and killing it. The entangling vines go away. Chuck charges at the shambling mound. Telryn shoots a magic missile at the shambling mound, hitting it. Goldpetal casts Cold Snap on the shambling mound, freezing it. Stone punches the shambling mound three times, hitting twice. Darmaon moves over and shoots at the shambling mound, but stumbles and nearly drops his bow. The mound tries to constrict Stone again, crushing him. Stone falls unconscious. Miriel moves up and heals Stone. He leaps up again. Paks swings and hits it, killing it. Miriel calls for everyone who needs healing to come close. She casts a Healing Circle, healing everyone within 10 feet. Telryn scans from the sky for other dangers.